OPTSIM

OpticalCommunicationsSystemsSimulator
MEE13PhotonicNetworks

Introduction
ThislaboratoryisanintroductiontothecommercialsoftwareCADsimulatorOPTSIM.Thepackage
isaccessedfromyourUNIXaccountonaSOLARISworkstation.FirstlogontoyourUNIXaccount
andmakeanoteofthefullpathofthedirectorywhereyouwanttostoreyouroptsimfiles.Youcan
dothisbyusingthepwdcommandafterchangingtothedirectory.Makeanotehere:
Fullpathtooptsimfiles:
Solarismachinesin2rdfloorresearchlab:
Tosetupthecorrectenvironmentyoufirsttype:
source/usr/local/ARTIS/OptSim32/OpSetup.csh
LinuxmachinesinN402:
Tosetupthecorrectenvironmentyoufirsttype:
source/opt/ARTIS/OptSim32/OpSetup.sh
Thentostartthesoftwareyoutype:
optsim
Theinitialscreengivesyouthreeoptions,selectthetopbuttonwhichistoopenanewsimulation.The
firstdialogboxtoappearallowsyoutosetthefilenametobeused,typenewinthefilenamebox.The
nextdialogboxasksyoutosetsomesimulationparameterswhichwecanleaveattheirdefaultvalues
byclinkingonOK.ThefollowingGUIshouldnowappearonyourscreen:

BasicOPTSIMscreen.
The buttons on the left hand side contain the model components available for simulations. For
examplethetoplineofbuttonshasthreearrowscolouredblack,blueandred.Theseareusedtocreate
connectionsbetweencomponentsofalogical,electricaloropticalnature.Ifyoupositionthecursor
overoneofthecomponentbuttonsandleaveitstationaryatooltipwillappeargivingyouthenameof
thecomponent.Tocreateasimulationyouselecttheappropriatemodellingcomponentbyclickingon
itsbuttonandthenclickonthesimulationarea.
CreateasimplemodelbyconnectinganOpticalPulseGeneratortoanOpticalProbebyanOptical
Link. Note that the two components have a question mark imposed on the icon indicating that no
specific parameters have been chosen. In fact the model components all come with default vales
whichcanbeobservedbydoubleclickingontheicons.Dothatnowforbothcomponentsandexplore
themenustoseewhatparameterscanbechanged.Whenyouhavefinishedthequestionmarksonthe
iconswillhavedisappeared.Youshouldnowhaveasimulationlookinglikethis:

Simplesimulationofanopticalsourceconnectedthroughafibretoan
opticalprobe.
Wearenowinapositiontorunthesimulation.IfyoulookundertheSimulatemenuyouwillfindtwo
typesofsimulationasfollows:

SPT
Thisstandsforspectralpropagationtechniqueandisasimplesimulationbasedontheassumptionthat
allthecomponentsinthesystemarelinear.Whenthisisthecaseitisonlynecessarytocalculatethe
opticalpowerspectrum.RunthissimulationfirstbyclickingonSPTandthenStart.Awindowwill
openandrecordtheprogressofthesimulation,whenpromptedclickonthewindowandpressreturn.
IfyoutryandusetheOpticalProbeoutputs(byrightclickingontheicon)youwillfindthattheyare
notavailableastheSPTsimulationdoesnottakeaccountofmeasurementcomponents.However,you
can look at the output power spectrum by right clicking on the Optical Link and selecting View
PowerSpectrumChart....Closethischartandcontinuewiththenexttypeofsimulation.
VBS
Thisstandsforvariablebandwidthsimulationandusesaformofbeampropagationtocalculatethe
responses of the components. This simulation is able to include nonlinear device response and is
thereforemuchmorecomplexandtimeconsuming.RunthissimulationbyclickingonVBSandthen
startandclosetheprogresswindowasbefore.
WhenthesimulationiscompleterightclickontheOpticalProbeandselectViewChart.Anew
window will appear which shows the optical spectrum, now in more detail than before. Notice the
separation of the peaks, you can establish the bit rate of the optical source by measuring their
separation. To do this, move the markers (red and blue) to line up with two adjacent lines in the
spectrumandlookontheMarkerstab(onthetoprightofthecommandpanenexttothegraph),.You
canalsocheckthisvalueagainstthepropertiesofthesourcewhereyouwillfindthespecificationof
thepulseseparationundertheSignalShapebutton(clickonRaisedCosineandselectitagainfrom
themenuofshapesthatappears).
You can now investigate the charts available in the Optical Probe in more detail. In this simple
simulationtheonlyotherchartofinterestisthetimedomaingraphwhichcanbeviewedbyclicking
on the appropriate icon on the icon bar above the chart pane (the tool tip will say Instantaneous
OpticalPower).Atfirstthislooksabitofamessasthetimedisplayissetto12.8nsandwehavea
10Gbit/s source. Right click on the xaxis and select Axis Properties..., then change the
maximumrangeto0.2(notetheunitsaresetinoneofthefieldsonthiswindow)andclickOK.You
can now see the detail of some individual pulses in the optical signal. At present we are only
transmittingasequenceofonesandtodoanythingmorecomplexwewouldneedabettertransmitter
model which we will look at in the next example. For now we will examine some more model
constructsusingthissimplemodel.
Beforemovingontothenextpartclosedownthegraphwindowsandexitthedatadisplaywindow.
Youwillusuallyneedtodothiswhenyoumodifyasimulation.
Change the measurement time in the OpticalProbe to 1ns. Change the signal shape in the Optical
PulseGeneratortosolitonandrepeattheVBSrun.Notenowthatthespectrumhaschangedashas
thepulseshape.Actuallynothingisreallyhappeninginthismodelastheopticallinkwehaveselected
sofarisanidealopticallinkwhichhasnononlinearityandnodispersion.RightclickontheOptical
LinkandselectProperties.SelectthefibretypeStandard_SMwhichisstandardsinglemode
fibre,specifythefibrelengthtobe10km,clickonOKandreruntheVBSsimulation.
Youshouldnowbeabletoseethatthephaseofthepulseandtheinstantaneousfrequency(=d/dt)
havesomestructure.Youcansaveacopyofthesegraphsforcomparisonwithothersbyselectingthe
menu File/Export Curve give the phase plot the name 10mwphi.prn and the frequency plot
10mwf.prn. Now change the properties of the soliton pulse source by changing the peak power to
60mW.Whenthesimulationhascompleted,lookatthetimecurveandnotethepositionofthepeak
ofapulseandthenlookatthephasegraphagainandimportthecurve10mWphi.prn.Notethatthe

phasenearthepulsepeakisflat.(Remembertransformlimitedpulseshaveatmostaconstantphase,
variationsinphaseacrossthepulseindicateadeparturefrombeingtransformlimited.)Thisflatnessis
thesignaturethatthedispersionandnonlinearityhavecancelledoutgivingrisetosolitonformation.
Thepartsofthepulsetrainbetweenthepeaksdonothaveaconstantphase.Thetheoryforsolitons
predicts that they should have a constant phase across the whole profile of the pulse, why is it
differenthere?

OptsimSamplefile
Loadthesamplefilefirst.opfthatcanbefoundin:
/usr/local/ARTIS/OptSim32/examples/Getting_started/First/
or
/opt/ARTIS/OptSim32/examples/Getting_started/First/
dependingonwhichmachineyouareusing(typethispathintotheboxlabelledfilter).Saveacopyin
yourfilespace,thisiswherethefullpathnotedatthetopofthefirstpageisneeded,andthenclose
theprevioussimulation.Spendsometimeexaminingthevariouscomponentsinthemodelandbesure
thatyouunderstandwhateachisdoing.(Youcangetalotofinformationfromthehelpbuttononthe
componentpropertieswindow)Beforeyourunthesimulation,changetheOpticalSpectrumAnalyzer
toanOpticalProbeandsetthemeasurementtimeoftheprobeto1ns.Comparethepulsetrainsfora
systemoflength1km,20kmand50km(Tosavererunningthesimulationsaswegothroughvarious
partsitwouldbebettertosavethesethreerunsasseparatefilesfirst1,first20andfirst50).Youshould
haveagraphlikethis:

Comparisonofoutputpulsetrainsfor1km,20kmand50kmlengthsinmodelfirst.opf.
Notethatapartfromthepulseamplitudesdecreasingduetothefibreloss,thepulsepositionschange

intime,whyisthis?(Hint:lookatthephaseplotofthe1kmsystem)Rememberthatthetimewindow
oftheprobeismovingalongatthespeedoflightofthecentralfrequencyinthesimulation.Sincethat
isthefrequencyofthelasersourceusedthepulsesshouldnotmoveintime.
Ifatanytimeafteryouhaveimportedagraphyouwanttolookatanothergraphyoueitherneedto
restartthegraphsystemorremovetheimportedgraphs.Toremoveagraphyoufirstneedtoselectit
inthegraphdescriptionpane(usuallyitneedsexpanding)abovethegraph.
Nextlookattheelectricalcharacteristicsofthemodel.TheElectricalProbeisusedinthesameway
asweusedtheOpticalProbebutnowthegraphsavailablearetheeyediagram,timeplot,frequency
spectrum and two histograms. There are also some measurements associated with the eye diagram
suchastheQfactorandthejitter.ExaminehowtheQfactordecreaseswithincreasingsystemlength.
TryandfindouthowlongthesystemwouldhavetobetodecreasetheQfactorto6?(why6?)You
cangetafirstestimatebyextrapolatingtheQvsfibrelengthplot.

ComponentIteration
Inordertolookatthesystemperformanceinthepreviousexamplewehadtokeepchangingthefibre
lengthandrerunningthesimulation.Itwouldbemucheasiertogetthesimulatortodothisforusand
onewayistouseitsabilitytocreateblocksofelementsthatcanbeiterated.Firstloadthesimulation
filefirst20.opffromyourdirectoryandsaveitassecond.opf.Editthefibrelengthtobe10km.
Inorderforasetofcomponentstobeiteratedtheymustsatisfythefollowingconditions(theseare
takenfromthehelpfiles):
1.Theiteratednetworkmusthaveasingleopticalinputandasingleopticaloutput.
2.Theiteratednetworkmuststartwithafiberandendwithanopticalcomponent(withasingleoptical
output). For example, an optical splitter may not be used as an endpoint because it has multiple
outputs.
3.The iterated network may contain electrical or logical components with unassigned output
connections.However,allopticalcomponentsmusthaveallopticalconnectionsassigned,exceptfor
theonethatactsasanendpoint.
Let us set up an iterated network to allow us to view the propagation of the pulses in the fibre.
Connect the fibre to an OpticalSplitter and connect the OpticalSplitter to an Optical Probe and a
Splice. Now select (use the shift key to make multiple selections) the components in the following
orderfibre,everythingexceptthesplice,spliceandselectthemenucommandIterate/MultipleSpan.
Whenthemultiplespanwindowcomesupselect5spans.Youshouldnowhaveablockthatlooks
likethis:

Iteratedblockofcomponents
Run the VBS simulation and then view the chart on the optical probe within the block. When

promptedforthespannumberselect5.Youshouldnowsee5spansavailableinthespanwindowof
thegraphviewer.Ifyouselectall5youwillseethepulseshapesevery10kmalongthefibre.